


Four Seasons In One Day

by BourbonOnTheRocks



Category: Good Girls (TV), Graceland (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Do people actually want to read a story with almost no Brio inside?, Existential Crisis, F/M, Hints of multi-personnality Rio, Mentions of Rio/Original Female Character, Obsessive Rio (Good Girls), POV Rio (Good Girls), Parent Rio (Good Girls), Post-Canon (Graceland), Pre-Canon (Good Girls), Stalking, character backstory, liberal use of the f-word
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-31 21:11:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21152279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BourbonOnTheRocks/pseuds/BourbonOnTheRocks
Summary: From Johnny to Rio, from SoCal to Detroit, from FBI to crime king, from Lucia Solano to Beth Boland, this is the story of Christopher. It doesn't make any sense. Except it does. And, okay, let's be honest, Manny Montana is the only reason this fic exists.ORClosing an imaginary nine years gap between Graceland S3E13 and Good Girls S01E01, based on the idea that Johnny Tuturro and Rio are the same person named Christopher.





	Four Seasons In One Day

**Author's Note:**

> I went through a strong Brio nostalgia phase lately, that got me started on Graceland (it really soothed by the way!) and so this fic was born.
> 
> If you haven't seen Graceland, just picture it as _Rio, the early years_, cause that's what it could be! Johnny is some kind of younger, softer, more open and naive FBI Rio. 
> 
> And if you haven't seen Good Girls, then... Why are you still there? Seriously? Just binge it. C'mon.

* * *

** Summer **

* * *

Graceland was ruined. After Jake's departure, Johnny had seen the world he used to believe in collapse. He'd thought Graceland was his home and family, but turned out it wasn't. Everybody was full of shit, goddam liars, who'd done terrible things to each other and to the rest of the world. Including himself. He'd murdered Sid for fuck's sake! That wasn't what he thought his life would be like when he'd been so excited to enter Quantico. It wasn't how he saw himself when he had wanted to join the Marines. He hated everybody now, because they had ruined it. So he'd decided to leave. He just didn't want to keep pretendin' they were all a family, a bunch of friends who'd gather around a bonfire and celebrate the triumph of the Good against the Evil. They were evil too. But they pretended they were not, which made them even worse people than actual criminals.

Charlie had tried to stop him. She'd been the only one from the house, so far.

"Please, Johnny, don't do that to us. I understand you're mad, I know, and believe me I am too. But we all need each other, we'll go through this together. As a family," she'd begged him.

"There ain't no together, Chuck," he had darkly replied, "We no family. And you know it. I shot Briggs in the thigh, is that summin' families do?" he'd paused before he'd slowly added with a weak smile, "I mean the Solano's do, but it kinda supports my point."

She had shaken her head, silently admitting that he was right as tears were falling from her eyes.

"You've always been the one to whom Graceland mattered the most. It's probably even harder for you than for the rest of us," she'd whispered.

"I'm sorry Chuck. I just can't stay," he'd muttered.

"I know," she'd breathed, and they had hugged, both crying and knowing this was the end of an era, for both of them.

"I love you, Johnny."

"Love you too, Charlie."

She had untied from their embrace to look him in the eyes.

"We've all lost at some point that consciousness of who we are and what is good," she'd started, "But you Johnny, you still got that small flame inside of you. Don't let it go," she had begged him and he'd nodded.

"I'll try, Charlie, I'll try."

Then she had dragged him into her room and handed him a small bag.

"Here. Jakes left these for me. As a thank-you note, I guess. I was planning on returning them, but I'm already screwed for nine million, so..." she'd explained with a wince, "It's about a hundred grand. Wherever you go, you'll need this, more than me."

"Hey, I can't take that money," he'd protested, but she had firmly placed the bag in his hand.

"Just take it, Johnny!"

And so he had left. Thanks to Charlie, he had some money for a while, but he didn't know what to do with his life from now on. It wasn't only about Graceland. He had quit the Bureau too. He just couldn't keep doin' that. But the problem was, he didn't know how to do anything else. He was kinda lost at this point, and there was only one thing he was sure about: he wasn't over Lucia. 

Since she'd broken them up, he'd tried to forget her, though, but it never had worked. She was the only good thing that had happened to him in this pile o' shit. So he decided to track her down. He knew a guy. Okay, who was he kidding, he knew a bunch of guys. You don't spend years in the FBI, and undercover gangs, without knowing a few people and learning a few tricks. It took him a couple of months, but he finally found her in a small town near the Mexican border. She was hiding, obviously. Not from him, but, even with Carlito in prison and her father dead, there were still people outside looking for her. And, in his opinion, half of them were probably sent by Carlito himself. That crazy sick bastard. Whatever. He came to her one night, and she tried to give him again that bullshit about being cursed as a Solano, and not being a good person. Although it was obvious at this point that she wasn't over him either, and that she'd sorta hoped he'd eventually come for her. So she finally surrendered to his point, gave herself the right to dream about a fresh start with him. And now that he had quit the Bureau, Johnny genuinely believed that they could begin a whole new life, far away from all the evil they both had been through.

It took them a few weeks to figure things out, though. Lucia would have to change her last name, obviously, but again, he knew people for that. And as for him, he was already going by his old name, the real one. People used aliases in Graceland too. Who would have guessed that Mike was born an Archibald? Man, good luck to impress a cartel with that... And as for him, he'd been used to be called Johnny for so long that he'd almost forgotten his real birth name. Christopher. Lucia had looked at him with surprise when he'd told her, like she was discovering a new version of him or summin', but then she'd gotten used to it, although she still called him Johnny most of the time. 

Then there was the destination. They couldn't choose between Hawaii and New York, so one night they decided to throw a dart at a map of the country and it landed on Detroit. They both laughed hard. That was not even close to anything they were dreamin' about! But on second thought, maybe it wasn't so bad. If anyone was after them, it was probably the least intuitive place to start with. Besides, Johnny knew an old pal from Quantico who lived there, and although he had quit the Bureau, he knew that sooner or later he'd have to start working again, and in that specific lane of work, it might turn out to be useful to have a local contact someday.

And the truth was, they mostly didn't care about where they would eventually land. At that time, they were just madly in love with each other, and they'd have settled anywhere as long as they were together. So they gave Detroit a try, found a place to live. Lucia discovered that one of her friends from college lived in the suburbs, and they'd often hang out with her and her husband. When he would recall that period of his life later, Christopher would admit that it was a really happy time. No lies, no fuckin' shit, no deathly threats, was kinda relaxin'. Alright, maybe sometimes he missed the adrenaline, the action, and all that dangerous shit he was trained for, but that slight boredom was a low price to pay for all the happiness he'd found with Lucia. He'd thought about calling his local contact from the Bureau several times, but he hadn't so far. He knew that it would make him go back to the shady stuff, it was like some dark temptation he didn't want to succumb to. Charlie's money wouldn't last forever, though, so six months after their arrival in Detroit, they both took jobs, mostly on minimal wage but they didn't really care. Not yet. And life went on like this for a year, or so. Until one morning. He was sipping his coffee in the kitchen when Lucia called him from the bedroom.

"Johnny? I have something to ask you!"

Their apartment was kinda small so it only took him a few steps to stand in the doorframe of the bedroom.

"Don't call me that, baby, it ain't my name anymore. You know that," he reminded her with a smile.

"Tell me your full name, then," she replied with a strange light in her eyes.

He frowned, "Hey, I already told you that, why you askin' me that now?"

She took a deep breath, "Because I want you to tell me what his name will be."

There was a deafening silence in the room. Christopher felt his heart pounding in his chest, his body shaking with emotion and euphoria.

"Are you...?" he managed to ask.

She silently nodded and it took him several seconds to emerge from the shock of the news and take her in his arms, holding her tightly and covering her face with passionate kisses.

"I love you so much, Lucia!" he whispered against her skin.

"I love you too," she half-laughed, half-cried.

"How do you know it's a boy?" he suddenly asked.

She smiled, "I don't, it's just an intuition."

And okay, once he went through the happily shocked phase, he did freak out. A lot. Lucia and he weren't exactly an example of perfectly balanced, healthy people, so the idea of them raisin' a kid together was kinda terrifying, but he was convinced that they'd make it through. He asked her to marry him one week later. Not that he was _that_ conservative, nah, but he knew that she was, more than him at least, and he wanted to do this the right way. And she finally got to see the Southern Cross on their honeymoon. When they came back, he realized that the idea of becoming a father had given him something new to believe in, a new faith in life, it fueled him to work his ass out even harder, to provide for the future of the lil man-to-be, cause yeah, the doctors confirmed Lucia's prediction later. Her pregnancy went well, and these months would be the happiest of his life for a long time. He just didn't know it yet.

Marcus was born on the 22nd of September. First day of the fall. He should have seen that shit comin'.

* * *

** Fall **

* * *

Things didn't go bad all at once. Nah, it happened more subtly than that. They were even truly happy at first, after Marcus's birth. They named him after Lucia's grandfather on her mother's side, whom she used to be very close before he'd died. But then, little by little, things started to change and get fucked up. Of course, they weren't the first couple whose relationship dynamics had been turned upside down with the arrival of a baby, and they would certainly not be the last, but maybe they were too different, after all, or maybe they didn't see the future with the same goddamn eyes. The bottom line was that they started to argue, more and more often as time went by. And Christopher was worried about the money. What was the point of working at minimum wage when he knew better ways to make a lot more of money, ways he was actually fuckin' good at? He had not cared about their finances so far, but now he wanted to provide for Marcus's future, he wanted to secure savings for him, and he only knew one way to do that.

It had been one of their favorite argument topics. Lucia didn't want him to get back at his old job, it made her feel bad about herself, but he didn't know any better way. He didn't want to reintegrate the Bureau, nah, but maybe do some intel job, give a hand once in a while, like they used to work with people from the outside back in Graceland. And now that he had to take care of a family of his own, he turned to the only other family he knew. He finally called his FBI contact in Detroit. Sam was truly psyched to hear from him after such a long time, and they met once for coffee.

"Unfortunately, I cannot really be of any help to you," Sam had added while frantically stirring his cappuccino after Christopher had explained his situation to him, "I'm leaving Detroit next month, they're transferring me to DC."

"Good for you," Christopher had said with a hint of disappointment.

"But I can totally talk about you to the guy who's replacing me."

"Yeah, I ain't sure they're gonna trust some random dude they never heard 'bout. Who's the guy, though?"

"I don't remember his full name. Archibald something..."

Mike? Christopher's heart had jumped in his chest. If Mikey Mike "Levi" was here, if that was him, he didn't have to worry 'bout his future anymore. 

Turned out fate owed him one, because it _was_ Mike. It didn't take long after that for Christopher to start workin' as an FBI intel. He hadn't left Mike much of a choice, though. He knew too much about his past in Graceland to ruin his career, and Mikey wasn't enough of a killer to eliminate his former roommate from the picture like that. Besides, they both got benefits from this. Christopher would infiltrate local street gangs, and give Mike, ooops, sorry bro, _Archibald_, an opportunity to improve his arrests track record in exchange for his cut in the confiscated goods.

But all of this turned into a fuckin' vicious circle. The harder he worked, the more money he made, but the more he would argue about it with Lucia too. And he'd work even harder, then, to avoid their confrontations. As a result, one year later, he'd made his way through Detroit criminal jungle faster than he'd thought. There was one particular gang leader the feds were after, Caleb, kinda was the king of Detroit at the time, but they didn't know how to place an agent undercover in his gang, their guys always ended up caught. So they asked him to do their fuckin' job, 'cause he knew the people, he'd been around for a long time now, and his tips had always been subtle enough to never have raised suspicions among local gangs. And he happened to know the perfect guy to help him enter Caleb's gang. His name was Demon.

He'd met him a couple of times before, over deliveries, and he knew that he worked for Caleb crew. So he tracked him down at a bar one night, came to him, casually askin' for a job. Demon had already seen him at work, he knew he was trustworthy, wouldn't be so hard to get in.

"I ain't like lil' pricks like ya," Demon immediately stopped him.

So much for an easy entrance, then. But he kinda liked that straightforwardness.

"Y'all think you're smarter than the others but in the end..." Demon spoke again with a little wave of the edge of his hand.

Christopher smiled, "What if I really am, though?"

Since he'd become a snitch, he'd learned how to exude self-confidence, how to give his voice a charming drawl that usually captivated people's attention, until he got what he needed from them.

Demon smirked but didn't look impressed, "Al'ight, let's give it a try."

And so he started working for Caleb, or at least one of his favorite boys. And he did a hell of a good job for Demon, realized he was fuckin' good at it. At first he'd only be in charge of deliveries and low-level tasks, but as he climbed up the criminal world ladder, he got to do more stuff. Saw a lotta dirty shit too. Mike knew this was a long-winded undercover operation, they wouldn't take Caleb down in a day, it'd take months, possibly years. So the only instruction he gave Christopher was to do whatever it'd take to climb as far as possible in the organization chart. Including some really pretty dark shit that hardened him. Like killin', torturin' people. And he obliged, following the track, but at that time he had kinda forgotten why he was doin' it in the first place. As weeks and months went by, he felt more a part of the gang than a feds insider. Demon was proud of him and kept insisting he joined them for real, and meet the big boss, but he didn't feel ready yet, although gettin' to that was exactly Mike's goal.

Because things were gettin' worse with Lucia, and he kinda didn't want to poison the whole thing by _joining a gang_. As a daughter and sister of former Mexican cartel leaders, that was a touchy topic with her. Plus they both had changed a lot since Marcus's birth. She'd tended to build a legit, quiet life on her own, working as a waitress in a coffee shop, hanging out with her college friend and dreaming of a life in the suburbs. He was slowly falling on the dark side, makin' tons of cash that would all eventually belong to his son, and starting to truly enjoy that game he was such a fuckin' good player at. Hence they argued all the time, and he'd often run away from the apartment at night to seek for some quiet face-to-face with a drink. He'd never drunk as much as he did then in his whole life, and he incidentally learned to handle his liquor even better. It lasted for about a year, this shitty situation getting a little worse each day, until they finally admitted that this wasn't working anymore. She brought the issue first. He wouldn't have had the balls to do it.

They signed the divorce papers on a rainy afternoon, which was incidentally the day of his 30th birthday, and he'd never have guessed that failure could cause such physical pain. He let Lucia have whatever she wanted, he didn't want to fight about that. He didn't care about material shit. He'd lost his faith in life and happiness, and the only thing that mattered from now on was his two-year-old son. Maybe that was the only thing Lucia and him still agreed on.

That same night, after drowning his lost illusions about love in the oblivion of several tequilas, he called Demon.

"Al'ight, I'm ready. Let's do it," he bitterly said.

"You sure, man?"

"Yeah... Pretty much."

There was no good left for him on that side anyway, so this would be his goddamn birthday present. Demon took him to that guy he knew who was a tattoo artist and wrote a fuckin' bird in his neck, his definitive entry ticket into Caleb's crew.

"You gotta chose a new name, too," Demon told him afterwards.

Christopher thought about the river that crossed the Solano's estate, from the banks of which he'd been watching the sunrise with Lucia one morning, during one of his first visits at the property. Whenever he thought 'bout Lucia, that memory always came first, her face enlightened with the golden light of dawn. That place was the very reason why everything had gone off the rail in his old life. And Johnny was gone now, the river had drowned him. His face darkened.

"Rio," he whispered, a farewell to his old self.

* * *

** Winter **

* * *

A few weeks of hard work later, he got to meet with Caleb. That guy was literally terrifying, and a really sadistic bastard, but Rio admired the way he commanded his crew, his natural power over his boys, who obeyed to the slightest wave of his head. The guy exuded a confidence and a sense of legitimacy that fascinated him. That was fuckin' inspirational and he thought that maybe he could copy some of his tricks to get a little control over Marcus, but not the ones involving gun, though. Yo, too soon for that! But the kid was starting to test his boundaries, try a few whims, and he didn't want that phase to turn into a regular aspect of his building personality. And maybe he also wanted to learn how to hide the fact that he was a fuckin' snitch under layers of unquestionable cockiness. He couldn't take the risk to get his cover blown now that he'd gotten so far, he'd end up dead, for sure.

He almost did die shortly after, though, but that was because Mike screwed up. Well they both did. Rio was the one who had sent him that tip, but in his defense, he never thought Mike would find it a good idea to launch a goddamn op about it without even telling him. So he was at this meeting with a bunch of dudes from another street gang, and they were supposed to set a deal, when the FBI team had blasted the door. The other guys had thought that Caleb had set 'em up, and things had gotten wild. A fuckin' blood bath. Three of his boys were shot dead, the other ones ended up arrested, and he got shot himself, in the shoulder. The shooter was about to finish the job when Demon had killed him and dragged Rio away with him. They'd both escaped but it had been a close one. Lucia had gotten mad when she'd found out, and he had to admit that he was pretty shaken too. Especially because of Marcus. The inherent danger of his lane of work was something he easily tended to forget, which made that wake-up call even more terrifying. He couldn't bear the idea of leaving his beloved son fatherless but his chances at surviving in all this mess wouldn't exactly improve if he kept being a pawn on the FBI chessboard, or a gang handyman. He had to start workin' things out for himself, 'cause nobody would take care of that for him.

When Caleb heard about the FBI op, he knew that summin' was wrong, and he tried to find who his rotten egg was, swept the whole house upside down, until he caught one boy he thought was his snitch. The cruel irony of fate made him ask Rio to deal with him. Caleb had probably thought that he was offering Rio a revenge for being shot during the police intervention, but having to murder an innocent while knowing he was the real snitch left Rio with a bitter taste in his mouth. He didn't want to have to live that again, ever. But there would always be a chance for that to happen if he kept workin' for someone. Demon scared the hell out of him, though, when they buried the body.

"Poor boy. Ain't no snitch..." he dreamily started, before he sharply added, "You are."

Rio's heart jumped in his chest, and he thought that it was over for good. Demon was gonna shoot him dead right there.

"What?" he tried to sound shocked.

"I saw how the feds avoided hurtin' ya. They been takin' care of ya on the op," he quietly said.

Rio thought that there was no point in denying.

He frowned, "Why did you save my life, then? Why didn't you take that opportunity to eliminate me from the picture?"

Demon smirked, "Thought you could be summin'."

And yeah, okay, technically this was the startin' point of him becoming a double agent snitching on both sides, but the idea had been wandering in his mind for a while before that. He didn't know exactly if there had been a turnin' point of some kind before or if he'd just slowly followed that slope. Maybe he just found criminals somehow less hypocritical than the Bureau. And the thing was, he couldn't betray Demon after he'd saved his life, wouldn't give him away to Mikey, to a dude in an office who almost got him killed. He didn't turn his back to the FBI yet, though, he still needed them for something, oh, just an insignificant detail. Demon's choice to spare him wasn't driven by soul elevation. He had an objective of his own too, as Rio discovered soon. Demon hated Caleb. He wanted him out. Good thing that the FBI happened to want him too, right? So they both worked in that direction, using Rio's connection to Mike in a way that served _their_ plan. And with Demon's help, Rio handed Caleb and his inner circle to Mike on a fuckin' silver plate within six months, finally complying with Mike's plan. What _wasn't_ part of Mike's plan, though, was the fact that Rio took over Caleb's kingdom after that, instead of lettin' the feds dismantle it. He even offered Demon to be the king, he trusted him enough to have him as his boss, but the latter had refused.

"Nah, Ain't what I'm good at. I ain't a boss. You are, though," he'd said.

And so Rio became the king of Detroit. Mike got the decency to cover for him, 'bout that. Didn't put a taskforce on him, but he didn't actively help him either. Kinda wasn't his fuckin' job anyway. A few months later, Mike called him though, asked for a meeting.

"I wanted to thank you, Johnny."

"Yeah... Don't call me that," he sharply replied, his chin resting on his palm while he was carefully studying Mike's face.

"Whatever, getting Caleb arrested really impressed the guys in DC. It's kind of a career boost actually. So I'm being transferred to a higher-level position."

Rio couldn't care less, "Good for you."

"Just wanted to warn you that there's someone coming to replace me. I covered for your... activities for the past few months, but he may not have that kindness."

"Al'ight. What's the name of the guy?"

"Jim Turner. I don't really know him, but I've read his file, and he seems to be the ambitious kind."

Rio nodded, "Thanks for the heads-up, bro. And congrats on your promotion."

Mike was right, as it turned out. Turner was the ambitious kind. The kind who wanted to make that big arrest to boost his career, just like Mike had done with Caleb. And yeah, maybe that sounded a little bit arrogant, but seriously, what better choice but him did Turner have for that? Oh c'mon, he could tell that the guy soon got obsessed with him. He had to take an extra care at how cautious and organized he already was to avoid Turner's trap, especially now that he had no more tips 'bout what was going on the inside. He was finally grateful for havin' spent these years in Graceland. He knew all the FBI tricks, hence managed to always be at least one step ahead of 'em. And Turner probably didn't know that, with all Rio's changes of names and state, the connection with Graceland seemed hard to establish, unless Mike opened his big mouth, of course.

Speakin' of the devil, he got some news from him a few months later. Mike's dad just passed away from a heart attack, and for some random reason, he messaged Rio 'bout that. And it wasn't that Rio was heartless but, to put it nicely, he didn't give much of a damn about Mike's personal life. But it seemed that the boy needed to talk, and what, didn't he have any _friends_ for that? Anyway, the met for coffee once, and to be honest Rio had only accepted to see him in the hope of gathering some heads-up about Turner. Although Mike wasn't directly workin' with him, he probably knew a couple of things. But it turned out to be even better. He had to go through an hour of laments, though, before Mike mentioned that his father's death had left his mother completely broke and powerless. She'd been a housewife her whole life, she didn't have a job nor much savings, and she had huge medical bills to pay, so Mike had to provide for her and he was livin' kinda tight right now. Rio wondered how housewives managed to tolerate how dependant from their husbands they were, that shit brought a terribly unhealthy dynamics, he thought. Would have driven him crazy to stay at home all day and not be able to fly with his own wings, totally vulnerable to any life hazard.

That wasn't really the point, though. The bottom line was that he offered Mike to give him the money he needed. Wasn't a concern for him, he made plenty. But he wouldn't trade it for nothin', nah, he asked him to become his inside man in exchange, your turn to be a snitch, dude! To his surprise, Mike accepted. Seemed like he wasn't that loyal to the Bureau after all. But it wasn't like he really cared about Mike's moral compass, as long as he got what he wanted from him. Mike worked on high-level so he had access to some stuff about ongoing cases, which eventually gave Rio an extra few steps ahead everyone else in his mouse-and-cat game with the feds. And Jeez, didn't he needed this, considering what an obsessive lil' snake Turner was.

And things went on like that for a few years. He was truly killin' it as a crime boss, he had had to harden his management skills a bit, learn a few more tricks, wrap it all in smoothness and shining charisma, but he'd finally achieved the promise he'd made to himself to never be vulnerable to another boss again. It was hard work but it was worth bein' at the top. Except that he was fuckin' lonely up there. His whole life revolved around Marcus and work. And, fine, maybe sometimes buying ridiculously expensive useless furniture or aesthetic pieces of art, since Lucia had transmitted to him her taste for that. He would ironically snort whenever he'd remind himself that he'd worked so hard to get to the top that he hadn't realized until the end that there was nobody up there. Was a fuckin' cold desert. He had no family, no friends to talk to. Demon was the closest to a friend he had, and he wasn't the kind of buddy he'd _share_ anythin' personal with. Sharin' personal stuff was bullshit anyway. He'd rather kill himself than step in that hippie-inspired emotional shit. But still, sometimes he thought about the open boy full of illusions he used to be back then. How life had been so much delusional on him until everythin' inside of him had turned dark. How he'd lost faith in people, in life, in love. 

About that, things had gotten better with Lucia as time had done its oblivious job. They could talk like adults, now, no hard feelings there. She owned her own coffee shop, made some money, got that legit life of hers she'd been dreamin' about but couldn't have with him. She had been seeing that guy, Daniel, for a couple of years now. Rio had not seen him much but all he could say was that the guy was nice with her, and he seemed to be really fond of Marcus too. Co-parenting was workin' fine now. She seemed happy. And he guessed he was kinda happy too? Like, not the dumb ecstatic happiness he'd lived in on the early times of his marriage with Lucia, nah, that was stupid. It was more like he'd found some... balance in his life. He was good at what he did, he liked it, loved his son. And as for the rest, he just wrapped it in layers and layers of nihilist irony until he'd even forgotten that there was nothin' but a fuckin' empty shell underneath. Maybe he wasn't _'happy'_, air-quotes please, but at least he didn't suffer.

And life could have kept going like this for a while, maybe until his death for what he bothered, if it had not been for the goddamn kids playground.

* * *

** Spring **

* * *

It happened on a sunny afternoon. At the park. Wasn't his usual one. Marcus was seven years old now, but he was little for his age and kinda bullied at school so Rio and Lucia had decided to transfer him somewhere else. Hence the kid relocated his playdates too. At least, people looked more... quiet around there. He was watching Marcus, like he usually did, when he had spotted that redhead sittin' on a bench over there. There wasn't summin' particular about her, like, yeah, she was hot as hell, not his usual type, but definitely hot. But it wasn't what had caught his attention at first sight. At least not all of it, cause again, she was candy for the eyes. But. Not the point. She exuded something else. Something he knew but never thought anyone else could have, at least not in that environment. It looked like the bunch of mothers she was sitting with were all black and white, but she was fuckin' Technicolor. He couldn't put words on it, it was just a vibe. A mix of desperate rage and wild darkness. Like when he was a kid and his pop had taken him to the zoo once. He'd been fascinated back then when he'd come across the tiger pen. He remembered that his sister was disappointed cause the wild creature was nappin', like she wanted to see him fight or ferociously eat raw meat or some shit. But lil' Christopher hadn't got disappointed. That had been the most hypnotic thing he'd ever seen. Cause that sleepin' beast was exuding so much wildness on hold that it had caught him. Anyway. That lady over there, she was the same. Fuckin' sleepin' tiger. And there was somethin' in her look that he sensed unhappy about it. Unfulfilled. She didn't spot him though, probably too busy watchin' her kid or something. And then it was time to go, and he left with Marcus, giving her an extra look on his way out. He shrugged. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he was so lonely those days that he was startin' to see things, you know. And soon he forgot about her.

Until the week after that, when he ran into her in Walmart, like, what were the odds? He never shopped at Walmart, hated these superstores. But that was kind of an emergency, he was on his way home after droppin' Marcus at Lucia's, and he'd just remembered he was running short of toothpaste, and going to bed without brushing his teeth was not an option. And Walmart just happened to be on his way. So. Wasn't his fuckin' point actually. She just walked past him, surrounded by, what? He squinted. One, two, three, four lil' monsters? He frowned. He'd never have guessed. From her sight at the park he'd more imagined her the kind to raise one, maybe two kids, tops. You couldn't handle workin' with more of 'em. And he'd couldn't imagine her not working, with all that energy he sensed in her. Once again, she didn't notice him as she crossed the aisle with her cart and her army of kids. But he did. He even caught the scent of her shampoo, or hair conditioner, or whatever. He watched her walk away as she was going through her grocery shopping. He didn't get it. It was like puttin' a gangbanger in a ballerina dress, made no fuckin' sense. She didn't belong to this, that he was sure of. He'd seen enough freaks and dark people in his life, on both sides, to just _know_.

This time, he didn't want to let her go and forget 'bout her. He had inherited some of his abuela's ancestral superstitions. It wasn't like he believed in _destiny_ or that kind of bullshit, nah, but life had thrown that woman on his path twice, and it surely meant something. He forgot about the toothpaste, and he waited until she left the store to follow her. She drove him to one of these shitty suburban houses, the kind Lucia had wanted them to live in. The hell no. And again, he didn't get it. That woman didn't seem to be the kind of person who'd _settle_ for that kind of low-rated life. Sure, the house, the bunch of kids, the non-working mom, it all made sense now. It just wasn't what he sensed from her. Again, ballerina stuff. He waited until she was inside the house to check the name on the mailbox. Boland. That was the first tangible thing he knew about her now. Aside from where she lived, obviously. And where she shopped. He stayed there a couple more hours, just out of curiosity. At some point a guy showed up. The husband, he assumed. In a _suit_. He burst into laughter. Man, what was that, like 1956? He hadn't even thought about the fact there should be a husband at this point. It was like... irrelevant. Yeah. But whatever.

He started stalking her after that. A lot. Obsessively. Following her everywhere at a fair distance so she didn't notice him. Her schedules were pretty much the same, week after week, like a goddamn pattern. How did she do that without gettin' bored to death? Soon he got obsessed with her. He ran some background check, now that he had a name and address. Elizabeth Irene Boland, born Marks. Finally, that was something. From what he had seen, he'd gotten afraid she had some lame first name like Tiffany or Jessica. But Elizabeth... That at least made sense. He rolled that name off his tongue several times, emphasizing its four syllables, relishing the rhythm of it. E-li-za-beth. That didn't do any good to his obsession, though. He was thinkin' about of her like all the time now. Wondering what her voice sounded like, or how her lips tasted. Cause yeah, he'd definitely have hit that. Sorry, _her_. 

He realized that last fact one night when he was with Rosa. She was the closest thing to a girlfriend he had. He didn't believe in relationships anymore since the wreckage of his marriage with Lucia. And he wasn't that much into one night stands either, but hey, he was still young and his body starved for companionship sometimes. He'd usually find his ephemeral girlfriends in bars, and it would last, well, for as long as they wanted to. From a night to a couple of months at best. But it wasn't dating, mostly casual, non-exclusive sex, with no feelings involved. And it was like that with Rosa too, except she'd been around for almost a year now, like some kind of... _regular?_ Was that a thing? Anyway, the bottom line was, ever since he'd started stalking _Elizabeth_, he got... distracted. To the point of thinking about her while Rosa was bouncing over him. He pictured the sight of Elizabeth Boland riding him instead. And based on what immediately followed, it clearly hadn't been a good idea.

"Already?" Rosa asked with surprised eyes, and a hint of disappointment, since _she_ wasn't finished yet.

He winced, "Sorry, babe, got a 'lil distracted," he apologized.

Of course he made it up to her after that. Twice. But still, that had shaken him. Maybe he was gettin' a little bit crazy. Been so lonely that his mind was slowly heading off the rail. But that didn't stop him. He knew all about her life now. And, collaterally, about the black woman and the little blondie she spent so much time with. And as the weeks went by, the three of them would meet more and more often, and looked more and more tense. He could see the exhaustion on Elizabeth's face. The anxiety. Summin' was wrong but he didn't know what. And then one night, he saw that the anxiety was still there, but jointed with what looked like excitement. Thrill. And again, he had no clue about where _that_ came from.

Until two days later, when Demon called to inform him that the Fine & Frugal store vault, _his_ vault, had been robbed by three unidentified women. To Demon's huge surprise, he had let out a incredulous laughter. C'mon, what were the odds? He refused to believe it at first. Was probably a fuckin' coincidence. But that obsessive voice inside kept telling him that it all made sense. His rational part tried to push that crazy thought away, though, but he came to the store on the next day to have a little talk with his contact there. And as he was blankly staring at the store aisles, almost empty at this time of the day, he spotted blondie in a cashier uniform. Seriously, what _were_ the odds now? He couldn't believe it. The Universe was messin' up with him or what? Life hadn't put Elizabeth Boland on his path, nah, it was way more than that, it had fiercely thrown her through the glassy walls of his life like some wake-up call wrapped in golden curls and giant baby eyes full of inner darkness. He'd wanted to be a hundred percent sure, though, before making what might turn out to be the biggest mistake of his life. Or the best thing he'd ever done, depending on what would happen next. But. Before that, he decided to follow blondie for a couple of days. She seemed to be the kind to go nuts about money, so if she'd left the store with half a million dollars, he would know. She gave him the biggest laughter he'd ever had in his life. That bitch bought a _Porsche!_ No way! At least that gave him the answer he was expectin'. Now he knew what he had to do.

He took Demon and Cisco with him, though. That bitch might be special but she still owed him a fuckton of cash. And that was kind of an unprecedented situation for him, so he wasn't sure of how she'd react. Based on the past few weeks, she seemed to be full of surprises. Starting with her home security. What the hell, breaking into her house turned out to be easier than buying toothpaste at Walmart. Well, it suited him for once.

"Hey Buddy!" he greeted as the dog came to him, happily wagging.

He patted the animal's skull, who trustfully nested his head in his hands and that genuine, open-minded trustfulness reminded him of Johnny. Now he was more like a solitary grumpy cat who wouldn't trust anyone. Kinda sad, right? He took the dog for a walk then, feeling like it was the least he could do for him. He sat on the dining table when he came back. He always felt more comfortable sitting on things that weren't supposed to be used for that purpose, it sent the message that he belonged anywhere. And he waited, Demon and Cisco by his side and silently absorbed with their phones.

At some point he heard the opening of the front door and he straightened, his heart beating fast. He'd been picturing the moment he'd meet her for weeks now.

"Hey, Buddy, what's wrong? You need to go potty? Need to pee-pee?" he heard her talk to the dog from the hallway.

"Nah, he's good. We already took him out."

She screamed as she entered the living room, and for the first time he met her eyes. Her gaze hit him point blank and he felt a twitch in his heart. And he wasn't surprised to see determination underneath the fear that was for now filling these incredibly blue pieces of sky.

"What do you want?"

That was the first time he was actually hearing her voice. That soft, sweet, baby-doll voice that poured itself like honey all around his heart. He definitely wasn't ready for that. But he was good at quickly pulling himself together. She hadn't asked him who he was, or what he was doing in her home, or screamed that she would call the cops, no. She'd gone straight to the point. Practical. He liked that.

"Oh relax sweetheart!" he teased as he got back to his feet, and slowly walked towards her, noticing that she didn't step back, even a little, "I just need you to call your lady friends over so we can all have... a little talk."

"About what?" she asked, and there was definitely a defying expression on her face in addition to the fear, like she was daring him to try to hurt her. 

She liked challenges, he'd sensed that from the start.

"Oh, about the money you stole from us," he casually replied, and as he saw her face decompose, he had to bite his lips not to smile.

He watched her frantically reach for her phone in her purse and make that phone call to her friends. And then they awkwardly waited in an uncomfortable silence. She was avoiding his looks, and the way he kept staring at her wasn't probably helpin'.

She finally raised her eyes at him and took a deep breath, "Who are you?"

_Oh I know you, Elizabeth Boland, but you don't know me!_ he thought. And man, that way she was lookin' at him! He couldn't believe that he'd guessed that whole thing about her so right. He felt a glimpse of happiness chasing away the shadows in his heart and he smirked, watching her pretty face. This was going to be so much fun.

**Author's Note:**

> Work title from Paul Kelly and Angus song of the same name.
> 
> Am I the only one who's been wondering about how Rio found Beth so quickly after the grocery store robbery while the cops didn't? At this point Boomer was the only one who knew the girls identity, but he didn't know Rio yet (he met him at Kenny's birthday party) and had no interest in turning the girls in to the gang anyway. Seriously, how did he find out? So this is also my attempt to fix that presumably plot loophole.
> 
> Oh and I apologize to all the Tiffany and Jessica, it's not personal! ❤️


End file.
